Interesting point about Noel Brown only being All-Met Honorable Mention. Let's hope JC can develop him. All-Met first team has George Mason and Radford signees.
Recruits in Year 2 by Jarvis, Penders, Hobbs and Mike were pretty good. 
So I am also concerned about the quality of recruiting. JC has to take it up a notch from Mount and Siena level players. And he has to know to thrive or get fired at GW depends on his ability to bring in recruits who allow us  compete for A-10 championships.

I'd say still very encouraged despite the disappointing end to the year where it was clear fatigue had set in. The future to me is bright because 1) the shooting and finishing rate of the incoming freshman class is likely to be better than the senior class just graduated, and 2) more depth will hopefully mean less of a drop off in performance as the end of next season closes.

Next year's team is probably even younger than our team as a whole last year, so I would still probably not have the biggest of expectations. Maybe something like 15 wins and a .500 overall record with hopefully no disappointing losses to teams like American, Morgan State, and Fordham. Also avoiding the play-in game? Finishing 8th would be awesome. To me what is more important is a more efficient offense and a more disruptive defense.

Offensively, I would hope not to see so many players shooting under 40% from the field. I understand this past season JC didn't exactly have the players to fit his system well, but this fall most guys on the team will be JC's, and for us to progress into a team we want to be it will mean we have at least 8 guys shooting 40% (the more the better) and the post guys hopefully well over 50%. This is what we had this year (a product of not having enough shooters and depth):

Jamison 39.9%
Maceo 38.6%
Mezie 33.9%
Shawn 32.8%
Juice 30.8%
Javier 30.3%

We should also aim to shoot closer to 36-37% from deep given how many shots we take from there. We were only 32% this year.

I also hope JC continues to learn how to play through the post more, something I mentioned a few times during recaps this season. Yeah we gave the ball to Chase, AT, and Ace here and there when they were in the game but it wasn't consistent enough. No matter how good of a shooting team you are from deep, there has to be some sort of balance between shooting jumpers and playing through the post (which also opens things up along the perimeter). I'm thinking something along the lines of that Wofford team a couple years ago. They had some good shooters like Magee and Hoover dotting the perimeter, but also had a good post guy in Jackson to balance things out and give them a threat down low. It was honestly disappointing to see our opposition consistently have their big back us down underneath and finish and we couldn't do the same. That includes Soriano from Fordham, not just guys like French, Hughes, and Osunniyi. Chase showed flashes over the course of the season and I hope that's a sign of things to come. Also, we couldn't solve the zone this year when the threes weren't falling, and while hopefully our shooting will be better this coming year, we will need to find an alternative closer to the hoop instead of just continuing to shoot threes that don't fall.

I also hope our shooters show a more comprehensive skillset offensively than just gunning from deep. Jamison has progressed well in this regard, and hope he keeps it up. Maceo has shown the ability to slash to the hoop (he did that quite a bit in HS) but again, it's not consistent enough. I hope not to see games where he fails to score because he took 5 shots, all threes that rimmed out and he didn't do anything else. I caught a bit of the 2016 NIT Championship game against Valparaiso the other day, and I remember the commentators saying something about our team making more free throws than our opposition attempting free throws. By us relying so much on jump shots, we sacrifice our ability to get to the line and score from there (unless JC considers a free throw to be a midrange shot, that I don't know). 

Defensively, I want to see more 'mayhem'. We weren't very good at generating steals or turnovers this past year, which I assume again to be because of personnel. Now that JC is starting to get his guys in his system, I am hoping our steals per game goes up quite a bit and that we actually make teams sloppy passing the ball in both the backcourt and halfcourt. Running guys off the line was a nice first step this year (although it seemed we were having less success doing so as the season progressed) but I still fear that if our opposition gets past the first line of defenders we are going to be really exposed in the paint. How Noel and Hunter fare there will determine how high our ceiling can be in the future. Chase showed good shot blocking ability at times but he is slightly on the shorter side. The goal is to force the opposition to shoot as many midrange shots as possible, and those too should be as contested as possible.

Finally, I hope/assume we will play slightly faster on both ends. Something I probably say every offseason. Defensively, make teams turn the ball over quickly. Offensively, finding a better shot earlier in the shot clock through better ball movement instead of a last second panic shot from the point guard or a single pass made from the PG.

In terms of a "pre" player breakdown:

Maceo - as mentioned above, get to the hoop more consistently and shoot more free throws since he is great from there. Defensively, continue to progress (he made nice strides this year), which means not having periods where he just lets his man blow past him on drives or cuts to the hoop.

Jamison - I'd say the same thing as Maceo offensively, although Battle did show more of an inclination to pump fake and get to the hoop instead of always settling for threes as the season progressed, and additionally, effort to rebound the ball. Defensively, he definitely has a lot of room to improve but I personally thought he did a commendable job for a first year. It will be interesting to see whether we view him as a 4 or a 3 moving forward. If a 4, he will need to add more strength to bang down low. If a 3, he will need to improve his lateral quickness to avoid losing his man on drives to the hoop.

JNJ - I still have concerns about point guard play for next year as we deal with life after Armel. JNJ definitely did become less turnover prone as the season progressed, but I still view him as more of a 2 with a scoring mentality than a guy who makes plays for others. The playing time will continue to be there for him, so I don't see him transferring even beyond next year unless things really fall apart. I mentioned this in the last few recaps of the season, but his lack of involvement on offense and the team fizzling out offensively at the end of the year was not a coincidence. For much of the season, we saw JNJ do well either cutting off the ball, or driving the ball to the hoop. Then at the end of the year, he would maybe take 3-4 shots, all which would be jump shots, and his only source of offense would be off of steals leading to fast breaks or at the line where he wasn't exactly consistent. That might have cost him making the all-rookie team. The ceiling is very high for JNJ, but reaching it means that he is able to find the balance between scoring and passing the ball if he is our main PG moving forward, and obviously developing a consistent jump shot. 42% from the field isn't terrible for a first year, but hopefully that 25% three point percentage goes up as well as his 60% shooting from the charity stripe. The good news is he doesn't have to look very far to find someone who can help him with that this offseason.

Chase - finished the year shooting 63% from the field. Yes, all those shots came within a few feet from the hoop, but after seeing AT and Javier struggle at times to finish underneath that was really refreshing to see. Paar is another guy who has a high ceiling to me. Even if that ceiling is never realized, at the very least his floor is pretty high as well. Every shootaround I saw him nail threes at a pretty good rate, yet Chase did not take a single one in an actual game. I hope we see JC and staff give him the ability to showcase his greater range in games next season. He will have to put on more strength to handle some of the better bigs in the league this offseason, but he showed what you would hope from a first year big, really exceeded even that in my opinion. He had nice moments defensively this season as well, and did a really good job guarding Toppin in the first half of the Dayton game. Added strength will help him on that end too.

Amir - I worry about him being able to stay healthy over the course of a season. When healthy, I feel a lot better about our PG situation and our defense. It was clear to me at times though when he was on the floor he was not 100% which limited his explosiveness and ability to make plays. Assuming he makes it back 100% (and hopefully stays that way), the room for improvement is definitely shot making. Harris isn't much of a three point shooter and has an awkward free throw stroke. We cannot have our two main guys at point be poor jump shooters and free throw shooters, especially late in games.

Javier - he serves as a nice spot guy off the bench, more notably on defense at times with his weird ability to alter shots despite not being a natural shot blocker. However, I just don't see him getting time after midseason once Hunter becomes eligible in a rotation that will also include an improving Chase and a promising Noel that I'm sure JC will want to get out there as we continue to look to the future. When he has been healthy, Langarica has just not shown the ability to finish offensively, whether it is underneath the hoop or from distance. He has shot 22%, 38%, and 30% from the field which is really bad for a big, and has never even made 20% of his threes despite the nice thought that he can develop into a stretch big. Truthfully, I feel his inclusion on next year's team would be to continue the streak of having at least one international player on the team. Don't want to sound too negative on him - as a fellow SEAS guy I wouldn't mind letting him finish his engineering degree (graduating early as an engineer strikes me as pretty tough with the capstone project and all), but objectively from a basketball perspective I don't see him getting the playing time if he's looking for that.

Shawn - I feel like I am higher on him than most on the board, but will concede that he has to definitely add a lot more strength to be a rotation player in the A10 as well as a much better shooter from the field. He showed a decent stroke from the FT line, so maybe that's a good sign of things to come. I do like his swagger and overall feel for the game, as well as his ability to play the point for a little, something that may be needed on this team next year. Would also be nice to see him be more disruptive on the defensive end.

Sloan's shooting will definitely help space the floor even more, but he needs to develop the other parts of his game to be more of a factor in the A10. He attempted just 3 (!!) free throws his freshman year and had just 23 rebounds despite being 6'9". Additionally, he only had 18 shots from inside the arc, most of which I assume were with his foot on the line. I've heard he wasn't the best of defenders at Siena either, but won't draw any conclusions until I see him suit up for GW. Hopefully this past year has enabled him to grow the other parts of his game. 

Hunter's highlights suggest he is a more explosive player than I thought and in HS in Louisiana he did show the ability to block shots at a good clip. Not putting too much stock in the lack of production at Southern Miss because he played for a different coach than the one he originally signed up for so the fit might not have been there. I have no idea where he will sit on the depth chart, but assume it will be after Chase and maybe Noel down the road. As a player who gives us maybe 10-15 minutes a game, I think he will be good.

No idea where to peg the freshmen, but I think all will elevate the bench and will give us more depth from what we had this year. Ball filled the stat sheet on both sides of the ball at Williamsport, which definitely is more encouraging than him just being known as a scorer to me. It's unfortunate that he suffered an injury his senior year of HS, and hopefully he will be fully good to go when practice starts. Brelsford shows a nice stroke on his threes, and also looks to be a good free throw shooter in crunch time, something this team may need next year. He has also shown good vision passing the ball, but will keep expectations in check since it will be his first year playing college ball. Brown of course I hope becomes our version of Osunniyi or Hughes down the line (probably have expectations too high). Like JNJ he hasn't played basketball for a long time so we may have a steal on our hands. I like that all three guys appear to have the desire to consistently get better.

To conclude, I'd envision a very early starting lineup that looks like JNJ-Maceo-Sloan-Jamison-Chase to begin the year, which will give us three shooters to space the floor. A lot could change though with transfers coming in and more guys transferring out.
 

I agree with FQ's points.

PG next year could be a disaster when we get pressed.  We should probably get a PG grad transfer even though that may stunt the "growth" of our youngsters.

I feel Amir will break out next year.  He missed way too many close shots and the odds will even out for him as he becomes more comfortable with the players, plays and schemes.

DMVPiranha's point about playing more through the post is an excellent one.  There are four ways that I can think of to get better looks from 3.  One is to push the tempo off of a defensive rebound and try to find an open shooter.  This is something we tried to do but defenses who commit to getting back on defense make these opportunities very rare.  A second way is to set up screens designed to free up a shooter.  We did not do very much of this.  Our high ball screens usually involved Armel or JNJ and not so much Maceo or Jamison.  The third way is to have the point guard drive to the basket where he then has an option to finish or kick the ball back to an open three point shooter.  This was essentially the biggest part of our offense.  The problem we eventually encountered, in addition to fatigue, was that defenses came to figure this out.  Often, two additional defenders would collapse on the point guard which served to cut off the passing lanes.  This is why Armel had so many turnovers down the stretch of the season.  What had been previously working was no longer working, and the team failed to adjust.  The fourth way involves feeding the low post player.  Chase has the size and the touch around the rim to pull this off; however, like many freshmen, he lacked the requisite strength.  He was effective at rolling to the basket when teams tried to double team our point guard twenty feet from the basket.  He converted on a very high percentage of those lob passes thrown his way.  The next steps in his development will be to show some shooting range, which he clearly wasn't given the opportunity to do....you'll notice that the first basket in our last game was a nice 15 footer by Chase, but we never came back to trying that again.  And, the other next step is for Chase to work out of the post.  There, he will need to be able to take his man one-on-one (as many stronger, more experienced centers did to him this year) or, when double teamed, he will need to be able to find the open man, which will likely be a three point shooter in JC's offense.

I am of the belief that both Maceo and Jamison must improve their lateral footwork in order to become better defenders.  Maceo improved his defense by way of using his long arms to disrupt passing lanes but he was still pretty consistently beat off of the dribble.  The question about Jamison playing the 3 or 4 really speaks to his ability to guard.  Right now, he is having difficulties staying in front of opponents who take the ball to the hole against him.  With Sloan Seymour, a great shooter with what appears to be limited defensive skills from what I've read joining the mix, the defense will have its share of question marks even with a healthy Amir and a healthy JNJ on board.

In their chalk talks before the game, coaches have merely said that they were not instituting a zone defense this first year. While it is not Christian's preferred defense, he has not declared GW a zone free area. Ending to the season was disappointing but exactly where did we think we were going? At this point, GW has 5 new players coming in who were choices of the coaching staff. We can fret that some of these relationships were initiated when Christian was recruiting for Siena but the commitments and NLI's occurred when the destination was Foggy Bottom and the A10. This year was never going to be a measure of the program's success or failure based on wins and losses. Coaches and the AD repeatedly said that. It was about the process and the progress. Given the player turnover and the returnees, I'm satisfied with both. Agree that a healthy Amir Harris was always part of the vision. He may never be fully recovered. JNJ may not be JC's favored height for his ideal PG but we've seen enough previous freshman struggles at that position that turned out quite well not to worry that the cupboard is bare. Junior certainly has hops and wheels not to mention damn good pedigree. In the meantime, with no GW or local professional sports, I'm going back to my normal situation -- exercising social distance.

Great to see Poog is still around and following GW Hoops, albeit from a distance. One of my favorite all-time posters.
Most of the above posts covered it well.I hope we don't lose anymore players to transfer, our new recruits over achieve and our players stay healthy.
I really want JC to do well. I'm just not that hopeful that someone with a .500 record after 6 years in the NEC, 1 year in the MAAC and A-10 is ready and capable of bringing us back to the upper half of the A-10. I just don't want to be here in March of 2022, 6 years after the NIT Championship, talking about the 3rd coach to lead us out of this mess.
Looking forward to November when we start the climb back to the summit!